Biographies
Who are the poets presented here? They are writers who knew when still young, as John Lennon said, “I was always different.” These poets are self-starters and aren’t always looking for approval or fame from others, but for ways to keep believing in themselves. They want to succeed but know failure is just one more way to learn. They were very much like young poets everywhere–except these poets persisted. So, read what they have to say in these essays and interviews. See what you, too, can enjoy and learn. —Susan Terris, editor, Quest: A Writer’s Journey, and On Becoming a Poet
Dennis Barone, as author or editor, has published twenty-six books including the prose work Second Thoughts (Bordighera Press), the volume of poetry Parallel Lines (Shearsman Books), and the anthology Garnet Poems: An Anthology of Connecticut Poetry Since 1776 (Wesleyan University Press). He retired from the University of Saint Joseph in 2020 after thirty-four years of teaching. He is currently Poetry Editor for the Wallace Stevens Journal.
Ellen Bass’s most recent book is Indigo (Copper Canyon, 2020). Her awards include Fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, NEA, Lambda Literary Award, and four Pushcart Prizes. She co-edited the first major anthology of women’s poetry, No More Masks! (Doubleday, 1973), and she co-authored the groundbreaking, The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse (Harper & Row, 1988). Chancellor Emerita of the Academy of American Poets, Bass founded poetry workshops at Salinas Valley State Prison and the Santa Cruz jails. She teaches in the Pacific University’s MFA program and offers online Living Room Craft Talks at ellenbass.com.
Patricia Carlin has published three poetry books, including, most recently, Second Nature. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, and she was awarded fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She has taught poetry, poetry writing, and Shakespeare studies at Princeton, Vassar, and The New School. She coedits the poetry journal Barrow Street.
Philip F. Clark is the author of The Carnival of Affection [Sibling Rivalry Press, 2017]. He currently teaches at City College, New York, where he received his M.F.A. in Creative Writing in 2017. The Poetry Editor of A&U Magazine, his work has been published in Tampa Review, The Marsh Hawk Press, Tiferet Journal, Lambda Literary, and Vox Populi, among other publications. His poetry website is The Poet’s Grin: https://philipfclark.wordpress.com/
Alfred Corn has published eleven books of poems, two novels, and three collections of essays. He received the Guggenheim fellowship, an award from the Academy of Arts and Letters, and one from the Academy of American Poets. He taught Creative Writing at Columbia, Yale, and UCLA. More information at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Corn
Denise Duhamel’s most recent poetry books are Second Story (Pittsburgh, 2021) and Scald (2017). Blowout (2013) was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. She teaches at Florida International University in Miami.
Elaine Equi has authored many books, including Ripple Effect: New and Selected Poems and, most recently, The Intangibles. A new collection, Out of the Blank, is forthcoming from Coffee House Press. She is also the guest editor of The Best American Poetry 2023.
Steve Fellner has published two poetry books from Marsh Hawk Press: Blind Date with Cavafy and The Weary World Rejoices. In 2021, Ohio State University Press released his first collection of personal essays, Eating Lightbulbs, which deals with mental illness, poetry, and movies. He lives with his husband in Western New York.
Rafael Jesús González taught Creative Writing & Literature at Laney College, Oakland, California where he founded the Mexican & Latin American Studies Dept. Four times nominated for a Pushcart Prize, he was honored by the National Council of Teachers of English for his writing 2003. He received a César Chávez Lifetime Achievement Award 2013 and one from the City of Berkeley 2015. In 2017 he was named Berkeley’s first Poet Laureate. http://rjgonzalez.blogspot.com/
Jane Hirshfield has been writing “some of the most important poetry in the world today” (The New York Times Magazine), She is the author, most recently, of The Asking: New & Selected Poems (Knopf, 2023); two collections of essays; and four books collecting and co-translating world poets from the deep past. Hirshfield’s honors include the Poetry Center Book Award, the California Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award finalist selection. Translated into seventeen languages, Hirshfield is a former chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Ilya Kaminsky is the author of critically acclaimed poetry collections, Dancing in Odesa (2004) and Deaf Republic (2019). Both books were written in English, Kaminsky’s second language. Over the years, Kaminsky has also become known for passionately advocating for translating international literature in the United States. A long-time poetry editor at Words Without Borders and Poetry International, he has also edited several anthologies of poetry from around the world, including Ecco Anthology of International Poetry (HarperCollins), which is widely used in classrooms all over the country. He has also founded and edited Poets in the World, a book series dedicated to publishing compilations of poetry from around the globe, including places such as Iraq, China, Eastern Europe, South America, and elsewhere. He has also edited and translated several collections of poetry from Ukraine.
Burt Kimmelman has published ten collections of poems, nine volumes of criticism, and over a hundred articles, mostly on literature, some on art, architecture, and culture. His latest book is Visible at Dusk (Dos Madres Press, 2021), a selection of his essays. Parapet: New Poems (Marsh Hawk Press, 2022) is forthcoming. More about him is available at BurtKimmelman.com.
Basil King, born in London, England in 1935, has been painting for over seven decades and writing since 1985. He does both in Brooklyn where he has lived since 1969. He has published ten books and a dozen chapbooks of poetry and made thousands of art works. Basil King: MIRAGE, a film by Nicole Peyrafitte and Miles Joris-Peyrafitte features his art and text. www.basilking-marthaking.com
Danusha Laméris’ third book of poems, Blade by Blade, was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2024. She is also the author of The Moons of August, winner of the Autumn House Press Poetry Prize, 2014, and Bonfire Opera (Pitt Poetry Series, 2020), finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize and winner of the 2021 Northern California Book Award. Laméris is on the faculty of Pacific University’s Low-Residency MFA program and lives in Santa Cruz, California. http://www.danushalameris.com
David Lehman’s most recent books are The Morning Line (Pittsburgh UP), a gathering of poems, and The Mysterious Romance of Murder: Crime, Detection, and the Spirit of Noir (Cornell University Press). Of The Mysterious Romance of Murder, Lois Potter in London’s TLS writes: “How often does a critical book actually make one want to read the books it discusses?” Lehman is the editor of The Oxford Book of American Poetry, series editor of The Best American Poetry, and a contributing editor of The American Scholar.
Phillip Lopate is the author of 20 books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, including his latest, A Year and a Day and My Affair with Art House Cinema.
Denise Low, the former Kansas Poet Laureate, is the author of House of Grace, House of Blood from the University of Arizona. Her other books include the memoir The Turtle’s Beating Heart: One Family’s Story of Lenape Survival (University of Nebraska Press), Jigsaw Puzzling: Essays (Meadowlark Press, Coffin Award), and Casino Bestiary: Poems (Spartan Press). Low is a founding board member of Indigenous Nations Poets (In-Na-Po) and a former board member and board president of the Associated Writing Programs. Low taught at Haskell Indian Nations University, where she founded the creative writing program. She is a literary programmer for The 222, an arts organization in northern California.
Mary Mackey, author of The Jaguars That Prowl Our Dreams: New and Selected Poems 1974 to 2018, winner of the 2019 Eric Hoffer Award for the Best Book Published by a Small Press, and a CIIS Women’s Spirituality Book Award. Other books: The Village of Bones: Sabalah’s Tale, a novel about Prehistoric Europe, plus seven other collections of poetry and 13 other novels. Her latest poetry book is In This Burning World: Poems of Love and Apocalypse. Here recent publication, Creativity: Where Poems Begin, is a nonfiction look at the origins of inspiration. Join her mailing list at http://eepurl.com/CrLHT. More information at https://marymackey.com/
Charles A. Matz: University of Notre Dame, USA, La Sorbonne, University of Paris, France, Columbia University, USA, Iconographer for Washington National Cathedral, Chevalier del Légion d’Honneur de France.
Jason McCall holds an MFA from the University of Miami. His collections include Silver; I Can Explain; Dear Hero,; Mother, Less Child; Two-Face God; A Man Ain’t Nothin’; and What Shot Did You Ever Take (co-authored with Brian Oliu). He and P.J. Williams are the editors of It Was Written: Poetry Inspired by Hip-Hop. He is a native of Montgomery, Alabama, and he teaches at the University of North Alabama.
Sandy McIntosh was born in Rockville Centre, New York, and received a BA from Southampton College, an MFA from Columbia University, and a PhD from the Union Institute and University. His journalism has been published widely in The New York Times, The New York Daily News, The Daily Beast, Newsday and elsewhere. He has published sixteen volumes of poetry and prose. His collaboration with Denise Duhamel was published in The Best American Poetry online. He was awarded a Silver Medal for a film script at the Film Festival of the Americas and received a fellowship to the John Steinbeck Memorial Library Studio, Southampton College. He was Managing Editor of Confrontation, Long Island University’s national literary journal, for ten years. He has been Executive Editor and Publisher of Marsh Hawk Press, Inc. for twenty-five years.
Stephen Paul Miller is the author of eight poetry books, including the forthcoming Beautiful Snacks (Marsh Hawk Press). His critical books include The Seventies Now (Duke UP) and The Other New Deal: 1938-1945. Miller was a Senior Fulbright Scholar at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland. He is a Professor of English at St. John’s University in New York City.
Indigo Moor is Poet Laureate Emeritus of Sacramento. His fourth book of poetry, Everybody’s Jonesin’ for Something, took second place in the University of Nebraska Press’ Backwater Prize. Through the Stonecutter’s Window, won Northwestern University Press’s Cave Canem prize. His books, Tap-Root and In the Room of Thirsts & Hungers, were both parts of Main Street Rag’s Editor’s Select Poetry Series. Indigo is on the visiting faculty for Dominican’s MFA program.
Rusty Morrison is co-publisher of Omnidawn (www.omnidawn.com). Her latest book, RISK, was published this spring by Black Ocean. Her books include After Urgency (Tupelo’s Dorset Prize) and the true keeps calm biding its story(Ashanta’s Sawtooth Prize, Laughlin Award, N. California Book Award, & Di Castagnola ). She’s a recipient of Civitella Ranieri’s fellowship, UC Berkeley Art Research Center’s Poetry & the Senses Program, and other artist retreat fellowships. She gives writing consultations. Website: www.rustymorrison.com
Sheila E. Murphy’s recent books: Golden Milk (Luna Bisonte Prods); As If to Tempt the Diatonic Marvel from the Ivory (Broken Sleep); Reporting Live from You Know Where (Meritage, i.e.,and xPress(ed), winner: Hay(na)ku Book Award. She’s the author of 44 books of poetry and multiple chapbooks. Her book Letters to Unfinished J. won the Gertrude Stein Award (Green Integer Press). Her work has appeared in Poetry, Hanging Loose, and Passages North. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheila_Murphy.
Jim Natal is the author of the forthcoming collection Everything Changes Everything, the new chapbook Étude in the Form of a Crow, and five full-length poetry books, including Spare Room: Haibun Variations and Memory and Rain. His work has appeared widely in journals and anthologies. He served as curator and host of the long-running Literary Southwest Series, and is co-founder of indie publisher Conflux Press in Los Angeles.
Gail Newman, former SF Coordinator for CalPoets and educator at the SF Contemporary Jewish Museum, edited Room, a Women’s Literary Journal and two anthologies of children’s poems: C is for California and Dear Earth. Publications include Nimrod International, Prairie Schooner, Ghosts of the Holocaust and The Bellingham Review. Blood Memory, her second collection, chosen by Marge Piercy for the Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize, won the 2020 NCPA Gold Award for Poetry. www.gailnewmanpoet.com
Geoffrey O’Brien is the author of nine collections of poetry, most recently The Blue Hill (Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize, 2018) and Who Goes There (Dos Madres Press, 2020). His eleven prose books encompassing memoir and cultural history include Dream Time: Chapters from the Sixties, The Phantom Empire, The Browser’s Ecstasy, Sonata for Jukebox, and Where Did Poetry Come From: Some Early Encounters. He lives in Brooklyn.
Xiaoqiu Qiu is a poet from Tongxiang, China. His poetry collection, Other Side of Ocean, won the 2024 Marsh Hawk Poetry Prize. His work has been published in the Gulf Coast Journal, Colorado Review, Los Angeles Review, and elsewhere. Currently, he is a Black Mountain Institute PhD Fellow at UNLV.
Spencer Rumsey is a professional editor, writer, and author of his debut novel, Kathmandu Rising.
Kim Shuck is a poet, educator, and troublemaker from San Francisco. Shuck is the solo author of eight books of poetry and prose. She is editor, assistant editor or co-editor of ten collections of poetry. Her awards include a PEN Oakland Censorship award, a Northern California Book Award for being a groundbreaker, and an American Academy of Poets National Laureate Fellowship. Kim’s latest book is Exile Heart from That Painted Horse Press.
R.L. Stine is one of the best-selling children’s authors in history. His Goosebumps and Fear Street book series have sold over 400 million copies worldwide and have been adapted for movies and TV. He lives in New York City with his wife Jane, a former editor and publisher. His newest title is: Goosebumps House of Shivers: Say My Name, Say My Name!
David St. John has received The Rome Fellowship and The Award in Literature, both from The American Academy of Arts and Letters; the O. B. Hardison Prize from The Folger Shakespeare Library; and the George Drury Smith Lifetime Achievement Award. He is the author of many poetry collections, most recently, Prayer For My Daughter, and a prose collection entitled Where the Angels Come Toward Us. David St. John has written two libretti: for the opera based on his book, The Face, by Donald Crockett, and the choral symphony, The Shore, by Frank Ticheli. He was also co-editor of American Hybrid: A Norton Anthology of New Poetry. A past chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, David St. John is a University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California.
Liane Strauss is the author of four poetry books and writes the monthly Substack How to Read a Poem: A Love Story. Mary Jo Bang chose her most recent collection, The Flaws in the Story, as the winner of the 2023 Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize.
Stephanie Strickland’s ten books of poetry include How the Universe Is Made: Poems New & Selected (2019) and Ringing the Changes (2020), a code-generated project for print based on the ancient art of tower bell-ringing. Other books include Dragon Logic, True North, and The Red Virgin: A Poem of Simone Weil. She has also published 12 collaborative digital poems, most recently Liberty Ring! (2020). www.stephaniestrickland.com
Arthur Sze is a poet, translator, and editor. His eleventh book of poetry is The Glass Constellation: New and Collected Poems (Copper Canyon, 2021). Previous books include Sight Lines, which won the 2019 National Book Award for Poetry, Compass Rose, and The Ginkgo Light. He has also published The Silk Dragon: Translations from the Chinese. A professor emeritus at the Institute of American Indian Arts, he lives in Santa Fe.
Eileen R. Tabios has released over 60 collections of poetry, fiction, essays, and experimental biographies from publishers in 10 countries and cyberspace. She invented the hay(na)ku, a 21st-century diasporic poetic form, and the MDR Poetry Generator that can create poems totaling theoretical infinity. She has also been translated into several languages and has edited, co-edited, or conceptualized 15 anthologies. More information is at http://eileenrtabios.com
Susan Terris is a freelance editor and the author of 8 books of poetry, 17 chapbooks, three artist’s books, and two plays. Her recent books are: Green Leaves, Unseeing (Marsh Hawk Press), Dream Fragments (Swan Scythe Press: Winner) 2020, Familiar Tense (Marsh Hawk) 2019, Take Two: Film Studies (Omnidawn) 2017, Memos (Omnidawn) 2015; and Ghost of Yesterday: New & Selected Poems (Marsh Hawk) 2012. Journals include The Southern Review, Georgia Review, Prairie Schooner, Beloit Poetry Journal, Blackbird, and Ploughshares. Poems of hers have appeared in the Pushcart Prize and Best American Poetry. Ms. Terris selected, arranged, and edited Quest: A Writer’s Journey and the 2022 Marsh Hawk Press anthology, Chapter One: On Becoming A Poet. She is editor emerita of Spillway Magazine and a poetry editor at Pedestal. www.susanterris.com
Amber Flora Thomas is the author of Eye of Water, which won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize for a first book by an African American poet. Her other books are The Rabbits Could Sing, and most recently Red Channel in the Rupture. A recipient of the Dylan Thomas American Poet Prize, the Richard Peterson Poetry Prize, and the Ann Stanford Poetry Prize, her poetry and essays have been published in The Georgia Review, Orion Magazine, Colorado Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Ecotone, and Tin House, as well as numerous other journals and anthologies. A native of northern California, she lives on the Pamlico River in North Carolina and teaches creative writing at East Carolina University.
Lynne Thompson is the 2021-22 Los Angeles Poet Laureate. The author of three books of poetry, Thompson’s work has appeared in Ploughshares, New England Review, Colorado Review, Pleiades, and Best American Poetry, among others. Her latest poetry collection, Fretwork, was selected by Jane Hirshfield for the Marsh Hawk Poetry Prize. She sits on the Boards of Directors of Cave Canem and Los Angeles Review of Books.
Tony Trigilio’s newest book is Craft: A Memoir (Marsh Hawk Press, 2023). His recent poetry books are Proof Something Happened (selected by Susan Howe as the winner of the 2020 Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize, 2021) and Ghosts of the Upper Floor (BlazeVOX [books], 2019). A volume of his selected poems, Fuera del Taller del Cosmos, was published in 2018 by Guatemala’s Editorial Poe (translated by Bony Hernández). He is a Professor of English and Creative Writing at Columbia College Chicago.
Julie Marie Wade is the author of 13 collections of poetry, prose, and hybrid forms, most recently Skirted: Poems and Just an Ordinary Woman Breathing. With Denise Duhamel, she authored The Unrhymables: Collaborations in Prose, and with Brenda Miller, Telephone: Essays in Two Voices. Wade teaches in the creative writing program at Florida International University and makes her home in Dania Beach with Angie Griffin and their two cats.